Solar Energy in the Midwest

Posts tagged ‘Washtenaw county’

Once there was a homeowner by the name of Jim. Jim worked hard for his paycheck, but had enough to cover the monthly expenses and have some left over to enjoy. Jim liked to take his wife Kris out to dinner and then to the latest movie. They traveled up north during the summer for a vacation and every other year they also took a trip to the sunny south during the cold winter to see Mickey Mouse and his crew. Jim was also able to put some dollars aside for retirement and the kid’s education. Each month the utility bills would come and they like most other bills seemed to be growing faster than Jim’s paycheck. Jim gathered the family together and said, “We need to find a way to reduce our monthly bills or we will need to eliminate college saving or retirement saving or our leisure activities such as dining out, movies and vacations.” Jim’s family did not want to lose any of those hard-earned choices. Jim and his family began shopping with coupons to save money. They drove the car less and replaced the gas guzzler with a car that got much better gas mileage. But they were frustrated on additional ways to save on their monthly bills. They began to look at the utility bills and decided it was time to attack the amount of energy and water they were using. But where do they look for a collection of energy-saving tips that an average family in Michigan can use? Where do they find a list they can review and determine what fits their lifestyle? Well they found the answer when they downloaded the MES 101+ Ways to Save Energy and it was FREE! Now they are reviewing the list and implementing many of those ideas and seeing the energy usage and the monthly utility bills going down. You too can find unique and helpful ways to save on your utilities each month. Just download our FREE e-book with 101+ ideas you can put into effect now to save. Many won’t cost you a dime to put into practice!

If you have questions, call us today!

It’s a good time of year to have our trained experienced air conditioning Technicians solve your cooling problems whether you live in Ann Arbor, in Canton, Novi, Northville, or Plymouth.

Through the PACE program, qualifying property owners are able to borrow money for energy efficiency projects ranging from $10,000 to $350,000 and then pay back the loans through special assessments added onto their tax bills for up to 10 years.

Andrew Brix

The program is a joint effort of the city of Ann Arbor and Clean Energy Coalition. City officials believe the availability of PACE financing will support economic stimulation across the city, create jobs and reduce operating costs for business owners.For full article go to: Link

DTE announced this week the end of the residential Solar Currents Program stating that they had reached their goals and the program was full. This program paid $2.40 per watt of any residential solar electric (PV) installation up to 20kW/meter plus a net metering program of .11 cents/kW fed back to the grid for 20 years.

DTE will still be participating in the net metering portion but will not be paying any upfront installation rates. That means there is still the possibility for the homeowner to receive credits for the energy they produce and feed into the grid, and possibly having negative utility bills, depending on the size of the system installed.

There is some rumor that DTE may consider reallocating some of the commercial program into a new residential program. We are hoping that they do in the very near future.

Many of the solar companies we talked to have lost business immediately because homeowners were counting on the Solar Currents program to be able to install a system for their home. The announcement of the system end came abruptly and took many companies and homeowners by surprise.

The Federal Tax Credit of 30% of total installation of any solar system, accept pool heating, still stands until 2016. There is also the possibility of selling power to the open market as a REC (Renewable Energy Credit).

Working solar systems are Solar Hot Water, 2 types of Solar Space heating systems, Solar Electrical (PV), solar attic fans, Solatubes and natural daylighting. We also offer solar pool heating systems. Experience matters! We have 26 years’ experience in the solar energy business with over 7,000 happy customers. Talk to us in person about financing options and find out how solar can work for you.

Have an old furnace? Not ready for solar yet? Save energy with high efficiency furnaces and air conditioners. Enter our draw to win a new high efficiency furnace. Bring your electrical and gas bills with you for a better idea of a best fit system for you.

Matt and Kelly Grocoff of Ann Arbor had Mechanical Energy systems Inc. install an 8 kW high efficiency solar electric (PV) system in the pursuit of making his historic home the first net zero energy 110 year old home in Michigan. After installing a geothermal furnace, super insulating and sealing the home to modern levels, he may have reached his zero goal. Despite having single pane glass windows with pane repairs and the addition of storm windows Matt was able to reduce his air exchange by over 60%. The complete installation of the solar panels was documented by Matt at GreenovationTV and Ann Arbor.com

Matt had this to say about MES, “Daren and the MES crew were amazing. This is how you want your contractors to be. We made our house the oldest net zero house in America and the first in Michigan. We did not make our choice of solar lightly. We wanted the best and we found it. I`m a little worried about all the schlocky solar contractors popping up out there and using lousy equipment and poor design. MES has been around for 25 years and are completed committed to solar and have decades of experience and technical knowledge. Love these guys and I`m thrilled to have our system.”

A similar solar electric system the same size and panel type that MES installed in Garden City is almost a year old and has produced 9.3 MW at the time of this posting. One megawatt is equal to one million watts, so one megawatt can power 1000 homes for one hour. The Garden City home has produced enough in less than a year to power 1000 homes for 9 hours or 9000 homes for one hour.

So far MES installations have generated over 30 MW’s this year. We are looking forward to next years count that will include all the systems that are waiting for the utility to connect them.

For pictures on these installations go to our Facebook page or our website at http://www.mes1/com